The Midwestern United States (in the U.S. generally referred to as the Midwest) is one of the four geographic regions The ten standard Federal Regions were established by OMB Circular A-105, "Standard Federal Regions," in April, 1974, and required for all executive agencies. In recent years, some agencies have tailored their field structures to meet program needs and facilitate interaction with local, state and regional counterparts. The OMB must still within the United States of America ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language used by the United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data. As part of the United States Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau serves as a leading source of data about America's people and economy in its reporting.

The region consists of twelve states in the north-central United States: Illinois United States migrant settlers began arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s; Illinois achieved statehood in 1818. The future metropolis of Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan. Railroads and John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow made central, Indiana Indiana has several metropolitan areas with populations greater than 100,000 as well as a number of smaller industrial cities and small towns. It is home to several major sports teams and athletic events including the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, the NBA's Indiana Pacers, the Indianapolis 500 motorsports race . Residents of Indiana are known as, Iowa Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east; the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west; the northern boundary is a line along 43 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude.[note 1] The southern border is the Des Moines River and a line along approximately 40 degrees 35 minutes north, as decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in Missouri, Kansas Historically, the area was home to large numbers of nomadic Native Americans who hunted bison. It was first settled by European Americans in the 1830s, but the pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery issue. When officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854, abolitionist Free-, Michigan Michigan is the eighth most populous state in the United States. It has the longest freshwater shoreline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair. In 2005, Michigan ranked third among US states for the number of registered recreational boats, behind California and Florida, Minnesota Nearly sixty percent of Minnesota's residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area known as the "Twin Cities", the center of transportation, business and industry, education and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture;, Missouri Missouri mirrors the demographic, economic and political makeup of the nation with a mix of urban and rural culture. It has long been considered a political bellwether state. With the exceptions of 1956 and 2008, Missouri's results in U.S. presidential elections have accurately predicted the next President of the United States in every election, Nebraska Once considered part of the Great American Desert , Nebraska is now a leading farming and ranching state, North Dakota The state capital is Bismarck and the largest city is Fargo. The primary public universities are located in Grand Forks and Fargo. The U.S. Air Force operates Air Force Bases at Minot AFB and Grand Forks AFB, South Dakota South Dakota is bordered by the states of North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana. The state is bisected by the Missouri River, dividing South Dakota into two geographically and socially distinct halves, known to residents as "East River" and "West River". Eastern South Dakota is home to most of the state', Ohio The government of Ohio is composed of the executive branch, led by the Governor; the legislative branch, which comprises the Ohio General Assembly; and the judicial branch, which is led by the Supreme Court. Currently, Ohio occupies 18 seats in the United States House of Representatives. Ohio is known for its status as both a swing state and a and Wisconsin The word Wisconsin has its origins in the name given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian speaking American Indian groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River and record its name, arriving in 1673 and calling the river Meskousing in.^[1] A 2006 Census Bureau estimate put the population at 66,217,736. Both the geographic center of the contiguous U.S. One of the locations claimed to be the Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States is pinpointed by a historical marker that is located within a small park near the town of Lebanon, Kansas. It is located at the intersection of AA Road and K-191, accessible by a turn-off from U.S. Route 281 approximately a mile north of the town. In actuality, and the population center of the U.S. During the 20th century the mean center of population has shifted 324 miles west and 101 miles (163 km) south. The southerly movement was much stronger during the second half of the century; 79 miles (127 km) of the 101 miles (163 km) happened between 1950 and 2000 are in the Midwest. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data. As part of the United States Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau serves as a leading source of data about America's people and economy divides this region into the East North Central States The East North Central States form one of the nine geographic divisions within the United States which are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau (essentially the Great Lakes The Great Lakes Region includes eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, as well as the Canadian province of Ontario. The region geographically borders the Great Lakes and forms a distinctive historical, economic, and political bi-national history, culture, and political economy States) and the West North Central States The West North Central States form one of the nine geographic divisions within the United States that are officially recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Chicago Chicago ( /ʃɨˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɨˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the largest city in both Illinois and the Midwest, and the third most populous city in the United States, with over 2.8 million living within the city limits. Its metropolitan area, commonly named "Chicagoland", is the 26th most populous in the world, home to an estimated 9.7 million is the largest city in the region, followed by Detroit Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded on July 24, 1701, by the Frenchman Antoine de la, Indianapolis Indianapolis , often abbreviated Indy (/ˈɪndi/), is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. The United States Census estimated the city's population, excluding the included towns, at 807,584 in 2009. It is Indiana's largest city and is the 14th largest city in the U.S., the third largest city in, and Columbus Columbus is the capital and largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio, fourth largest city in the American Midwest, and the state's third largest metropolitan area, behind Cincinnati and Cleveland. It is the county seat of Franklin County. Named for explorer Christopher Columbus, the city was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and. The Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI MSA is the largest metropolitan statistical area In the United States, a metropolitan area refers to a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are not legally incorporated as a city or town would be, nor are they legal administrative divisions like counties or states. As such the precise definition of any, followed by the Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI MSA, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI MSA Minneapolis-Saint Paul is the most populous urban area in the state of Minnesota, United States, and is composed of 186 cities and townships. Built around the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers, the area is also nicknamed The Twin Cities for its two largest cities, Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the former the larger and the latter the state.^[2] Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Sault Ste. Marie is a city in and the county seat of Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is in the eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the Canadian border, separated from its twin city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, by the St. Marys River. The population was 16,542 at the 2000 census, making it the second most populous city is the oldest city in the region, having been founded by French missionaries and explorers in 1668.

The term Midwest has been in common use for over 100 years. A variant term, "Middle West", has been in use since the 19th century and remains relatively common.^[3] Another term sometimes applied to the same general region is "the heartland".^[4] Other designations for the region have fallen into disuse, such as the "Northwest" or "Old Northwest" (from "Northwest Territory The Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Northwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 13, 1787, until March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio") and "Mid-America". Since the book Middletown In these studies, the Lynds and a group of researchers conduct an in-depth field study of a small American urban center in order to discover key cultural norms and better understand social change. The first study was conducted during the 1920s, beginning in January, 1924, while the second was written during the Great Depression appeared in 1929, sociologists have often used Midwestern cities (and the Midwest generally) as "typical" of the entire nation.^[5] The region has a higher employment-to-population ratio (the percentage of employed people at least 16 years old) than the Northeast The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States. According to the definition used by the United States Census Bureau, the Northeast region consists of nine states: the New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey and, the West The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time. Prior to about 1800, the crest of the Appalachian, the South The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, Down South, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States. Because of the region's unique cultural and historic heritage, including Native Americans, early European settlements of English, Ulster Scots,, or the Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the South and Southwest . Another rough boundary of the region is the area south of the 37th or 38th parallels, north latitude. The main defining feature of the Sun Belt is its warm-temperate climate with extended summers and brief, relatively mild winters. The states.^[6]

Definition

Traditional definitions of the Midwest include the Northwest Ordinance "Old Northwest The Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Northwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 13, 1787, until March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio" states and many states that were part of the Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles (2,147,000 km2) of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs ($3,750,000), for a total cost of 15 million dollars for the Louisiana territory. The states of the Old Northwest are also known as "Great Lakes states The Great Lakes Region includes eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, as well as the Canadian province of Ontario. The region geographically borders the Great Lakes and forms a distinctive historical, economic, and political bi-national history, culture, and political economy". Many of the Louisiana Purchase states are also known as "Great Plains states The Great Plains are the broad expanse of prairie, steppe and grassland which lie west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming, and the Canadian".

The North Central Region is defined by the U.S. ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data. As part of the United States Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau serves as a leading source of data about America's people and economy as these 12 states:

• Illinois United States migrant settlers began arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s; Illinois achieved statehood in 1818. The future metropolis of Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan. Railroads and John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow made central: Old Northwest The Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Northwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 13, 1787, until March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio, Ohio River, and Great Lakes The Great Lakes Region includes eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, as well as the Canadian province of Ontario. The region geographically borders the Great Lakes and forms a distinctive historical, economic, and political bi-national history, culture, and political economy state.
• Indiana Indiana has several metropolitan areas with populations greater than 100,000 as well as a number of smaller industrial cities and small towns. It is home to several major sports teams and athletic events including the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, the NBA's Indiana Pacers, the Indianapolis 500 motorsports race . Residents of Indiana are known as: Old Northwest, Ohio River, and Great Lakes The Great Lakes Region includes eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, as well as the Canadian province of Ontario. The region geographically borders the Great Lakes and forms a distinctive historical, economic, and political bi-national history, culture, and political economy state.
• Iowa Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east; the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west; the northern boundary is a line along 43 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude.[note 1] The southern border is the Des Moines River and a line along approximately 40 degrees 35 minutes north, as decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in Missouri: Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles (2,147,000 km2) of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs ($3,750,000), for a total cost of 15 million dollars for the Louisiana territory.
• Kansas Historically, the area was home to large numbers of nomadic Native Americans who hunted bison. It was first settled by European Americans in the 1830s, but the pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery issue. When officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854, abolitionist Free-: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state.
• Michigan Michigan is the eighth most populous state in the United States. It has the longest freshwater shoreline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair. In 2005, Michigan ranked third among US states for the number of registered recreational boats, behind California and Florida: Old Northwest and Great Lakes The Great Lakes Region includes eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, as well as the Canadian province of Ontario. The region geographically borders the Great Lakes and forms a distinctive historical, economic, and political bi-national history, culture, and political economy state.
• Minnesota: Old Northwest, Louisiana Purchase, Great Lakes state.
• Missouri: Louisiana Purchase, Border state.
• Nebraska: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state.
• North Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state.
• Ohio: Old Northwest (Historic Connecticut Western Reserve), Ohio River, and Great Lakes state. The southeastern part of the state is part of Northern Appalachia.
• South Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state.
• Wisconsin: Old Northwest and Great Lakes state.

Physical geography

While these states are for the most part relatively flat, consisting either of plains or of rolling and small hills, there is a measure of geographical variation. In particular, the eastern Midwest near the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains; the Great Lakes Basin; the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri; the rugged topography of Southern Indiana; and the Driftless Area of southwest Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota, and northeast Iowa exhibit a high degree of topographical variety. Prairies cover most of the states west of the Mississippi River with the exception of taiga-clad northern Minnesota. Illinois lies within an area called the "prairie peninsula", an eastward extension of prairies that borders deciduous forests to the north, east, and south. Rainfall decreases from east to west, resulting in different types of prairies, with the tallgrass prairie in the wetter eastern region, mixed-grass prairie in the central Great Plains, and shortgrass prairie towards the rain shadow of the Rockies. Today, these three prairie types largely correspond to the corn/soybean area, the wheat belt, and the western rangelands, respectively. Although hardwood forests in the northern Midwest were clear-cut in the late 1800s, they were replaced by new growth. Ohio and Michigan's forests are still growing. The majority of the Midwest can now be categorized as urbanized areas or pastoral agricultural areas.

Largest Midwestern U.S. cities and urban areas

History

Exploration and early settlement

European settlement of the area began in the 17th century following French exploration of the region. The French established a network of fur trading posts and Jesuit missions along the Mississippi River system and the upper Great Lakes. French control over the area ended in 1763 with the conclusion of the French and Indian War. British colonists began to expand into the Ohio Country during the 1750s. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 temporarily restrained expansion west of the Appalachian Mountains, but did not stop it completely.

Early settlement began either via routes over the Appalachian Mountains, such as Braddock Road, or through the waterways of the Great Lakes. Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh) at the source of the Ohio River was an early outpost of the overland routes. The first settlements in the Midwest via the waterways of the Great Lakes were centered around military forts and trading posts such as Green Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, and Detroit. The first inland settlements via the overland routes were in southern Ohio or northern Kentucky, on either side of the Ohio River, and early such pioneers included Daniel Boone and Spencer Records.

Following the American Revolutionary War, the rate of settlers coming from the eastern states increased rapidly. In the 1790s, American Revolutionary War veterans and settlers from the original states moved there in response to federal government land grants. Among the earliest pioneers to Ohio and the Midwest were the Ulster-Scots Presbyterians of Pennsylvania (often through Virginia) and the Dutch Reformed, Quaker, and Congregationalists of Connecticut.

The region's fertile soil made it possible for farmers to produce abundant harvests of cereal crops such as corn, oats, and, most importantly, wheat. The region soon became known as the nation's "breadbasket".

Development of transportation

Two waterways have been important to the development of the Midwest. The first and foremost was the Ohio River, which flowed into the Mississippi River. Development of the region was halted until 1795 due to Spain's control of the southern part of the Mississippi and its refusal to allow the shipment of American crops down the river and into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Mississippi River inspired two classic books – Life on the Mississippi and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – written by native Missourian Samuel Clemens, who used the pseudonym Mark Twain. His stories became staples of Midwestern lore. Twain's hometown of Hannibal, Missouri is a tourist attraction offering a glimpse into the Midwest of his time.

The second waterway is the network of routes within the Great Lakes. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 completed an all-water shipping route, more direct than the Mississippi, to New York and the seaport of New York City. Lakeport cities grew up to handle this new shipping route. During the Industrial Revolution, the lakes became a conduit for iron ore from the Mesabi Range of Minnesota to steel mills in the Mid-Atlantic States. The Saint Lawrence Seaway (1862, widened 1959) opened the Midwest to the Atlantic Ocean.

Inland canals in Ohio and Indiana constituted another important waterway, which connected with Great Lakes and Ohio River traffic. The commodities that the Midwest funneled into the Erie Canal down the Ohio River contributed to the wealth of New York City, which overtook Boston and Philadelphia. New York State would proudly boast of the Midwest as its "inland empire"; thus, New York would become known as the Empire State.

Railroads, interurbans, Henry Ford and Wright brothers

During mid-19th century the region also got its first railroads, and Chicago grew up to be the world's biggest railroad junction. Even today, a century after Henry Ford, six Class I railroads meet in Chicago.

In the period 1890-1930 a lot of Midwestern cities, towns and even farms and villages were connected by the interurbans, i.e. electrical streetcars which also run between the towns - also towns as far apart as Toledo and Cincinnati. Just the Midwest had more interurbans than any other region. In 1916, Ohio led all states with 2,798 miles (4502 km), Indiana followed with 1,825 miles (2936 km); i.e. these to states alone had almost a third of the US' interurban trackage^[8]. Indianapolis was the nation's biggest interurban junction. During the first decade after the turn of the century the city's population growth of 38 per cent was largely attributed to the interurban.^[9].

Competition with a growing population of automobiles and buses riding on state paved highways led to a decline in the interurban and other railroad passenger business. Later, the planes started to dominate the long-distance traffic. The Midwest brought forth both the automobile's big prophets Henry Ford and Charles Kettering (who invented the electrical starting motor and leaded gasoline) - and the Flyer pioneers, the Wright brothers.

19th century sectional conflict

The Northwest Ordinance region, comprising the heart of the Midwest, was the first large region of the United States that prohibited slavery (the Northeastern United States emancipated slaves in the 1830s). The regional southern boundary was the Ohio River, the border of freedom and slavery in American history and literature (see Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Beloved by Toni Morrison). The Midwest, particularly Ohio, provided the primary routes for the "Underground Railroad", whereby Midwesterners assisted slaves to freedom from their crossing of the Ohio River through their departure on Lake Erie to Canada.

The region was shaped by the relative absence of slavery (except for Missouri), pioneer settlement, education in one-room free public schools, democratic notions brought by American Revolutionary War veterans, Protestant faiths and experimentation, and agricultural wealth transported on the Ohio River riverboats, flatboats, canal boats, and railroads.^{[citation needed]}

Industrialization and immigration

By the time of the American Civil War, European immigrants bypassed the East Coast of the United States to settle directly in the interior: German immigrants to Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and eastern Missouri; Irish immigrants to port cities on the Great Lakes, especially Chicago; Swedes and Norwegians to Wisconsin, Minnesota and northern Iowa; and Finns to Upper Michigan and northern/central Minnesota. Poles, Hungarians, and Jews settled in Midwestern cities.

The U.S. was predominantly rural at the time of the Civil War. The Midwest was no exception, dotted with small farms all across the region. The late nineteenth century saw industrialization, immigration, and urbanization that fed the Industrial Revolution, and the heart of industrial domination and innovation was in the Great Lakes states of the Midwest, which only began its slow decline by the late twentieth century.

In the 20th century, African American migration from the Southern United States into the Midwestern states changed Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Gary, Detroit, Minneapolis, and many other cities in the Midwest dramatically, as factories and schools enticed families by the thousands to new opportunities.

History of the term Midwest

As this region lies mostly in the eastern half of the United States, the term "Midwest" can be misleading if one does not understand American history.

The term West was applied to the region in the early years of the country. In 1789, the Northwest Ordinance was enacted, creating the Northwest Territory, which was bounded by the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Because the Northwest Territory lay between the East Coast and the then-far-West, the states carved out of it were called the "Northwest". In the early 19th century, anything west of the Mississippi River was considered the West, and the Midwest was the region east of the Mississippi and west of the Appalachians. In time, some users began to include Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri in the Midwest. With the settlement of the western prairie, the new term Great Plains States was used for the row of states from North Dakota to Kansas. Later, these states also came to be considered Midwest by some.

The states of the "old Northwest" are now called the "East North Central States" by the United States Census Bureau and the "Great Lakes" region by some of its inhabitants, whereas the states just west of the Mississippi and the Great Plains states are called the "West North Central States" by the Census Bureau. Today people as far west as eastern Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and southward into Oklahoma sometimes identify themselves with the term Midwest.^[10] Some parts of the Midwest are still referred to as "Northwest" for historical reasons – for example, Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines and Northwestern University in Illinois – so the Northwest region of the country is called the "Pacific Northwest" to make a clear distinction.

Culture

Religiously, like most of the United States, the Midwest is mostly Christian.

Roman Catholicism is the largest religious denomination in the Midwest, varying between 19 and 29% of the state populations.^{[citation needed]} Southern Baptists compose 15.42% of Missouri's population ^[11] and a small percentage in other Midwestern states. Lutherans are prevalent in the Upper Midwest, especially in Minnesota.

Judaism and Islam are each practiced by 1% or less of the population, with higher concentrations in major urban areas, such as Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Detroit, and Cleveland.^{[citation needed]} Those with no religious affiliation make up 13–16% of the Midwest's population.^{[citation needed]} Around 50% of the people in the Midwest regularly attend church.^[12]

The rural heritage of the land in the Midwest remains widely held, even if industrialization and suburbanization have overtaken the states in the original Northwest Territory.

Because of 20th century African American migration from the South, a large African-American urban population lives in most of the region's major cities, although the concentration is not generally as large as that of the Southern United States. The combination of industry and cultures, jazz, blues, and rock and roll led to an outpouring of musical creativity in the 20th century, including new music genres such as the Motown Sound and techno from Detroit and house & blues music from Chicago. Additionally, the electrified Chicago blues sound exemplifies the genre, as popularized by record labels Chess and Alligator and portrayed in such films as The Blues Brothers, Godfathers and Sons and Adventures in Babysitting. Rock and roll music was first identified as a new genre by a Cleveland radio disc jockey, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is located in Cleveland.

Cultural overlap with neighboring regions

Differences in the definition of the Midwest mainly split between the Heartland and the Great Plains on one side, and the Great Lakes and the Rust Belt on the other. While some point to the small towns and agricultural communities in Kansas, Iowa, the Dakotas, and Nebraska of the Great Plains as representative of traditional Midwestern lifestyles and values, others assert that the declining Rust Belt cities of the Great Lakes – with their histories of 19th- and early-20th-century immigration, manufacturing base, and strong Catholic influence – are more representative of the Midwestern experience.

Certain areas of the traditionally defined Midwest are often cited as not being representative of the region, while other areas traditionally outside of the Midwest are often claimed to be part of the Midwest. These claims often embody historical, cultural, economic or demographic arguments for inclusion or exclusion. Perceptions of the proper classification of the Midwest also vary within the region, and tend toward exclusion rather than inclusion.

Two other regions, Appalachia and the Ozark Mountains, overlap geographically with the Midwest – Appalachia in Southern Ohio and the Ozarks in Southern Missouri. The Ohio River has long been the boundary between North and South and between the Midwest and the Upper South. All of the lower Midwestern states, including Missouri, have a major Southern component, but only Missouri was a slave state before the Civil War.

Western Pennsylvania, which contains the cities of Erie and Pittsburgh and the Western New York city of Buffalo, New York, shares history with the Midwest but overlaps with Appalachia and the Northeast as well.^[13]

Although Kentucky is considered Midwestern by some,^[14], it is categorized as Southern by the Census Bureau. It can be argued that due to German populations in the Northern Kentucky area and parts of Louisville that the state has midwestern influence in those areas, however this is generally not the case for the remainder of the state. When gauging the states culture as a whole based upon dialect, cuisine, ancestry, religion and other cultural factors, Kentucky has more in common with the south, specifically the upper south. ^[15][16][17]

Political trends

One of the two major political parties in the United States, the Republican Party, originated in Ripon, in east-central Wisconsin, in the 1850s. It included opposition to the spread of slavery into new states as one of its agendas.

Midwestern political caution is sometimes peppered with protest, especially in minority communities or those associated with agrarian, labor, or populist roots. This was especially true in the early 20th century, when Milwaukee was a hub of the Socialist movement in the United States, electing three Socialist mayors and the only Socialist Congressional representative (Victor L. Berger) during that time. The metropolis-strewn Great Lakes region tends to be the most liberal area of the Midwest, and liberal presence diminishes gradually as one moves south and west from that region into the less-populated rural areas.^{[citation needed]} The Great Lakes region has spawned politicians such as the La Follette political family, labor leader and five-time Socialist Party of America presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs, and Communist Party leader Gus Hall. Minnesota has produced liberal national politicians Paul Wellstone, Walter Mondale, Eugene McCarthy, and Hubert Humphrey, and protest musician Bob Dylan.

The region is now home to many critical swing states that do not have strong allegiance to either the Democratic or Republican party. Upper Midwestern states, such as Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan have proven reliably Democratic. Normally a Republican stronghold, Indiana became a key state in the 2006 mid-term elections, picking up three House Seats to bring the total to five Democrats to four Republicans representing Indiana in the U.S. House. In 2008, Indiana voted for the Democratic candidate for the first time in 44 years. Prior to the most recent presidential election, Missouri had supported the winning candidate all but one time since the beginning of the twentieth century,^{[citation needed]} making it possibly the most significant swing state in the country next to Ohio.

The state government of Illinois is currently dominated by the Democratic Party. Both Illinois senators are Democrats and a majority of the state's U.S. Representatives are also Democrats. Illinois voters have preferred the Democratic presidential candidate by a significant margin in the past five elections (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008). The same is true of Michigan and Wisconsin, which also currently have Democratic governors and two Democratic senators. Iowa is considered by many analysts to be the most evenly divided state in the country, but has leaned Democratic for the past fifteen years or so.

Iowa has a Democratic governor, a Democratic Senator, three Democratic Congressmen out of five, has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in four out of the last five elections, (1992, 1996, 2000, 2008). As of the 2006 mid-term elections, Iowa has a state legislature dominated by Democrats in both chambers. Minnesota voters have chosen the Democratic candidate for president longer than any other state. Minnesota was the only U.S. state (along with Washington, D.C.) to vote for Walter Mondale over Ronald Reagan in 1984 (Minnesota is Mondale's home state). In Iowa and Minnesota, however, the recent Democratic pluralities have often been fairly narrow. Minnesota has elected and re-elected a Republican governor, as well as supported some of the strongest gun concealment laws in the nation.

In 2006, Democrats scored major gains across the region. In Iowa, Democrats gained control of the state legislature and held onto the governor's mansion, giving them one-party control of Iowa's government. Elsewhere, Democrats gained control of the Wisconsin Senate, the Michigan Legislature, and the Indiana House. Minnesota, thought to be trending Republican, saw the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) post double-digit gains in the Minnesota House and win all state-wide elections, save for the gubernatorial race. Democrats also won all state-wide races in Ohio, and gained control of all Illinois statewide offices. On a federal level, Democrat Sherrod Brown defeated Republican incumbent Mike DeWine 56-44 for the U.S. Senate.

By contrast, the Great Plains states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas have been strongholds for the Republicans for many decades. These four states have gone for the Republican candidate in every presidential election since 1940, except for Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide over Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Barack Obama's capture of one electoral vote in Nebraska in 2008. However, North Dakota's Congressional delegation has been all-Democratic since 1987, and South Dakota has had at least two Democratic members of Congress in every year since 1987. Nebraska has elected Democrats to the Senate and as Governor in recent years, but the state's House delegation has been all-Republican since 1995. Kansas has elected a majority of Democrats as governor since 1956 but has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.

Missouri is considered a "bellwether state". Only twice since 1904 has the Show-Me-State not voted for the winner in the presidential election, in 1956 and in 2008. Missouri's House delegation has generally been evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, with the Democrats holding sway in the large cities at the opposite ends of the state, Kansas City and St. Louis, and the Republicans controlling the rest of the state. Missouri's Senate seats were mostly controlled by Democrats until the latter part of the 20th century, but the Republicans have held one or both Senate seats continuously since the 1976 elections.

Around the turn of the 20th century, the region spawned the Populist movement in the Plains states and later the Progressive movement, which consisted largely of farmers and merchants intent on making government less corrupt and more receptive to the will of the people. The Republicans were unified anti-slavery politicians, whose later interests in invention, economic progress, women's rights and suffrage, freedman's rights, progressive taxation, wealth creation, election reforms, temperance, and prohibition eventually clashed with the Taft–Roosevelt split in 1912. Similarly, the Populist and Progressive parties - including Roosevelt's 1912 Progressive Party ("Bull Moose Party") and Robert M. La Follette, Sr.'s 1924 Progressive Party - developed intellectually from the economic and social progress claimed by the early Republican party. The Protestant and Midwestern ideals of profit, thrift, work ethic, pioneer self-reliance, education, democratic rights, and religious tolerance influenced both parties, despite their eventual drift into opposition.

Some in the Midwest favor isolationism, a belief that America should not involve itself in foreign entanglements. This position gained much support from German- and Swedish-American communities and leaders like Robert M. La Follette, Sr., Robert A. Taft, and Colonel Robert McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune.^[18]

Linguistic characteristics

The accents of the region are generally distinct from those of the South and of the urban areas of the American Northeast. To a lesser degree, they are also distinct from the accent of the American West.

The accent characteristic of most of the Midwest is considered by many to be "standard" American English. This accent is preferred by many national radio and television broadcasters.

This may have started because many prominent broadcast personalities – such as Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Tom Brokaw, John Madden, Rush Limbaugh and Casey Kasem – came from this region and so created this perception. A November 1998 National Geographic article attributed the high number of telemarketing firms in Omaha to the "neutral accents" of the area's inhabitants. Currently, many Midwestern cities are undergoing the Northern cities vowel shift away from the standard pronunciation of vowels.^[19]

The dialect of Minnesota, western Wisconsin, much of North Dakota and Michigan's Upper Peninsula is referred to as the Upper Midwestern Dialect (or "Minnesotan"), and has Scandinavian and Canadian^{[citation needed]} influences.

See also

• Cuisine of the Midwestern United States
• Heartland rock
• Inland Northern American English
• Islands of the Midwest
• List of colleges and universities in the Midwest
• List of Midwestern cities by size
• List of Midwestern urban areas
• List of regions of the United States
• Midwest hip hop
• Eastern United States
• Great Plains
• Great Lakes

Notes

1. ^ http://www.census.gov/geo/www/us_regdiv.pdf
2. ^ ^{a b} Population in Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas Ranked by 2000 Population for the United States and Puerto Rico: 1990 and 2000 (pdf). U.S. Census Bureau. December 30, 2003. Accessed November 20, 2007.
3. ^ Examples of the use of "Middle West" include: Turner, Frederick Jackson (1921). The Frontier in American History. H. Holt and Company. OCLC 2127640. http://books.google.com/books?id=vtF1AAAAMAAJ. Shortridge, James R. (1989). Middle West: Its Meaning in American Culture. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 9780700604753. http://books.google.com/books?id=-pUOAAAACAAJ. Bradway, Becky (2003). In the Middle of the Middle West: Literary Nonfiction from the Heartland. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253216571. http://books.google.com/books?id=yuq2ZNXLvAIC. and Gjerde, Jon (1999). The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917. UNC Press. ISBN 9780807848074. http://books.google.com/books?id=qDxRsvJ0zeUC. ; among many others.
4. ^ Merriam-Webster online
5. ^ Sisson (2006) pp 69-73; Richard Jensen, "The Lynds Revisited," Indiana Magazine of History (Dec 1979) 75: 303-319, online at [1]
6. ^ Bureau of Labor Statistics
7. ^ Incorporated Places of 100,000 or More Ranked by Population: 2000 (pdf) U.S. Census Bureau. April 2, 2001. Accessed November 20, 2007.
8. ^ US History Encyclopedia: Interurban Railways; http://www.answers.com/topic/railways-interurban
9. ^ David P. Morgan (ed.): The interurban era, Kalmbach Publishing Co, p. 16-17; http://www.archive.org/stream/interurbanera00midd/interurbanera00midd_djvu.txt
10. ^ Sisson (2006) pp 57-60
11. ^ http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_sbc.html
12. ^ http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=10
13. ^ Defining the Midwest Megaregion
14. ^ The North American Midwest: A Regional Geography. New York City: Wiley Publishers. 1955. ISBN 0901411931.
15. ^ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County-1396x955.png
16. ^ http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NatMap1.html
17. ^ http://www.mountain-breeze.com/kitchen/kentucky/index.html
18. ^ Ralph H. Smuckler, "The Region of Isolationism," American Political Science Review, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Jun., 1953), pp. 386-401 in JSTOR; John N. Schacht, Three Faces of Midwestern Isolationism: Gerald P. Nye, Robert E. Wood, John L. Lewis (1981).
19. ^ http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Northeast/ncshift/ncshift.html

References

• Buley, R. Carlyle. The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period 1815-1840 2 vol (1951), Pulitzer Prize
• Cayton, Andrew R. L. Midwest and the Nation (1990)
• Cayton, Andrew R. L. and Susan E. Gray, Eds. The American Midwest: Essays on Regional History. (2001)
• Cronon, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1992), 1850-1900 excerpt and text search
• Garland, John H. The North American Midwest: A Regional Geography (1955)
• Gjerde, John. Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917 (1999) excerpt and text search
• Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896 (1971)
• Meyer, David R. "Midwestern Industrialization and the American Manufacturing Belt in the Nineteenth Century", The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Dec., 1989) pp. 921–937.in JSTOR
• Nordin, Dennis S., and Roy V. Scott. From Prairie Farmer to Entrepreneur: The Transformation of Midwestern Agriculture. (2005) 356pp.
• Shannon, "Fred A. The Status of the Midwestern Farmer in 1900". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. Vol. 37, No. 3. (Dec., 1950), pp. 491–510. in JSTOR
• Sisson, Richard, Christian Zacher, and Andrew Cayton, eds. The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia (Indiana University Press, 2006), 1916 pp of articles by scholars on all topics covering the 12 states; ISBN 0-253-34886-2 ISBN 978-0-253-34886-9

Primary sources

• Frederick; John T. ed. Out of the Midwest: A Collection of Present-Day Writing (1944) literary excerpts online edition

External links

Categories: Midwestern United States | Census Regions of the United States

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• Sunny Day Real Estate: Encyclopedia
• File:Sunny Day Real Estate - Seven.ogg: Encyclopedia
• Recreation: Collecting: Coins: Organizations: United States: Directory

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